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Keto Zucchini Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

4.96 from 582 votes
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This recipe may contain Amazon or other affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

A moist, gluten-free Keto Zucchini Cake with wonderful spices flavors, and crunchy pecans.

The best part, one slice has only 3.2 grams of net carbs for a sweet keto breakfast to pair with your bulletproof coffee.

Keto Zucchini Cake Almond Flour

If your garden is full of zucchinis and you have no idea what to do with them, try to bake a zucchini cake or zucchini bread.

Zucchini is a keto-approved vegetable that adds the most beautiful moist texture to cakes! On top of that, zucchinis have amazing nutrients for your health!

What’s A Zucchini Cake?

A zucchini cake is a moist, light, and fluffy cake baked in a 9-inch round or square pan. Zucchini cakes are not as dense as zucchini bread recipes.

It has the same spice flavors as zucchini bread, with crunchy nuts and moist grated zucchini all over the crumb.

This is a perfect breakfast cake or coffee cake.

Healthy Zucchini Cake

How To Make Zucchini Cake

Before you start making this recipe, make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature, especially the eggs and cream cheese.

Then, weigh each ingredient individually in a small bowl. This is a great way to be accurate in baking.

Ingredients

All you need are:

  • Eggs – at room temperature.
  • Erythritol – find out how to convert sweeteners on my sweetener converter.
  • Vanilla
  • Heavy cream – or canned coconut cream if paleo, shake the can before measuring. Learn why heavy cream is keto-friendly.
  • Coconut flour 
  • Almond flour – don’t swap for more coconut flour, or the crumb will be too dry. Learn how to choose your keto flour.
  • Grated zucchinis – water removed. See the next paragraph for tips on how to squeeze out water from shredded zucchinis. Zucchini is one of the most keto-friendly vegetables.
  • Salt
  • Cinnamon 
  • Nutmeg
  • Ginger
  • Chopped pecan nuts – or walnuts or sugar-free chocolate chips.
  • Baking powder
Keto Zucchini Cake Coconut flour

For the cake frosting, you will need:

  • Butter – soft, at room temperature.
  • Cream Cheese – soft at room temperature.
  • Powdered erythritol
  • Unsweetened almond milk – add up to 2 tablespoons if your frosting is too thick and dense.
Keto Zucchini Cake Coconut flour

Keto Zucchini Cake Tips

This keto zucchini cake recipe is very easy to make in one bowl.

There are a few important steps to follow to avoid a watery cake that won’t bake. Let me guide you through this!

Shred and dry the zucchini

First, shred the zucchini finely in a food processor or with a hand grater. I recommended keeping the zucchini skin on and shredding as thin as you can for the best texture. Then, place the shredded zucchinis in the center of a towel.

Gather the four corners of the towel together and squeeze as much as you can to extract all the water from the zucchinis. This is the most important part of your zucchini cake recipe.

In fact, zucchinis are made at 80% of water, and keeping too much water will make the cake watery, and eventually, it won’t bake at all.

Zucchini Keto Cake

Measure flours carefully

This recipe uses coconut flour, a high fiber keto flour that contains 4 times more fiber than any other flour. As a result, it is a high water-absorbent flour which means that missing some of it will result in a cake being too moist.

That is why I recommend measuring flours with the scoop and sweep method. It means that first, you fill the cup, and then you sweep the extra ‘bump’ on of the cup.

For more tips and tricks and to learn all my keto baking secrets, check out my Keto Baking Guide ebook.

How to make Keto Zucchini Cake

Cream cheese frosting

This zucchini cake won’t be as delicious without its cream cheese frosting. However, remember to always cool the cake for at least 2 hours before spreading your frosting on top of the cake. Also, always prepare the frosting just before using it.

In fact, making the frosting ahead and storing it in the fridge hardens the cream cheese, making it difficult to spread on top of the cake.

Gluten free zucchini cake

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I Make The Cake Dairy-free?

For paleo followers who don’t eat dairy, you can swap the heavy cream with canned coconut cream in the cake batter. Simply shake the can before measuring for precision.

Regarding the frosting, you can replace the cream cheese with pure thick coconut yogurt. Simply combine yogurt with powdered sweetener and vanilla, no need for butter or coconut oil.

Can I bake the cake in a bread pan?

This is a very moist cake, and you must bake it in a 9-inch round or square pan. This recipe won’t bake as a loaf of bread. It will be too moist.

However, if you prefer a zucchini bread recipe, I have two you can try: chocolate zucchini bread or zucchini pecan bread.

Can I taste the zucchini?

No, this cake has no zucchini flavor at all. Zucchinis are used in baking to add a moist texture and nutritional value.

Zucchini cake

More Keto Zucchini Recipes

I love baking with zucchinis, and I have many other keto cakes, cookies, and bread for you to try.

Made this healthy zucchini keto cake recipe? Leave me a review and comment below or even better, join me on Instagram and share a picture of your creation with me.

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Leave a comment below or head to our Facebook page for tips, our Instagram page for inspiration, our Pinterest for saving recipes, and Flipboard to get all the new ones!

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Keto Zucchini Cake Almond Flour

Keto Zucchini Cake

3.2gNet Carbs
A moist Keto Zucchini Cake with delicious spices, crunchy pecans, and cream cheese frosting.
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 35 minutes
Total: 50 minutes
Yield: 16 slices
Serving Size: 1 slice
4.96 from 582 votes

Ingredients

  • 5 large Eggs at room temperature
  • ¼ cup Heavy Cream or coconut cream if dairy-free
  • 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
  • ¾ cup Granulated Sweetener
  • 2 ¼ cups Almond Flour
  • ¼ cup Coconut Flour
  • 1 ¼ cup Grated Zucchinis unpeeled, pat dry, weigh after the zucchini water has been removed (165g, 5.8oz).
  • 3 teaspoons Baking Powder
  • ¼ teaspoon Salt
  • 1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon Nutmeg
  • ¼ teaspoon Ginger
  • 1 teaspoon Lemon Zest
  • cup Chopped Pecan

Cream cheese frosting

  • 8 oz Cream Cheese
  • 2 tablespoons Unsalted Butter
  • cup Powdered Erythritol
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  • 2 tablespoons Unsweetened Almond Milk beat in if frosting is too thick

Mapled pecan – optional

This recipe may contain Amazon or other affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a 9-inch x 9-inch square baking pan with parchment paper. Spray oil all other the pan and baking paper. Set aside.

Prepare the zucchini

  • Place the grated zucchinis in the center of a clean towel, wrap and squeeze hard to extract all the zucchini water. This is important to remove all the zucchini moisture to avoid a too moist cake. Set aside on a bowl.
  • Trim the zucchini ends, keep the skin on, and grate finely with a food processor or hand grater.

Zucchini cake batter

  • In a large mixing bowl, using an electric beater, beat on medium/high speed: eggs, heavy cream, erythritol, and vanilla. Stop when light, fluffy and whiter in color, about 30-45 seconds beating.
  • Stir in coconut flour, almond flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, ginger, nutmeg, and lemon zest.
  • Beat again on medium speed to avoid the flours bursting out of the bowl. Stop when the batter is consistent and no lumps appear.
  • Using a spatula, stir in grated zucchinis and chopped pecan.
  • Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan.
  • Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the top of the cake is golden and a pick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean or with a very little crumb.
  • Cool 10 minutes in the pan, then transfer to a cooling rack for 2 hours until it reaches room temperature.
  • When the cake is at room temperature, prepare the cream cheese frosting.

Frosting

  • In a large mixing bowl, using an electric beater, beat cream cheese with butter and powdered erythritol until fluffy and creamy.
  • Spread the frosting all over the top of the cake and decorate with maple-chopped pecan nuts if desired.

Maple-pecan nuts

  • In a small non-stick frying pan add the chopped pecan and roast under low heat for 1 minute, stiring often to prevent them from burning. Then add the sugar-free maple syrup and keep stirring to cover the nuts. Cook up to 2-3 minutes or fragrant and sticky.
  • Sprinkle on top of the cake frosting.
  • Cut the cake into 16 squares.

Storage

  • Store cake in a cake box in the fridge for up to 4 days.
  • Freeze the cake slices into an airtight container and defrost each slice on a plate at room temperature the day before eating.

Notes

Dairy-free options: replace heavy cream with canned coconut cream, shake the can before measuring.
Frosting: Beat dairy-free cream cheese or coconut yogurt with powdered sweetener. Don’t add butter. 
Tried this recipe?Mention @sweetashoneyrecipes
Serving Size: 1 slice
Yield: 16 slices
Serving: 1sliceCalories: 168.5kcal (8%)Carbohydrates: 6.6g (2%)Fiber: 3.4g (14%)Net Carbs: 3.2gProtein: 6.3g (13%)Fat: 14.3g (22%)Saturated Fat: 2.5g (16%)Polyunsaturated Fat: 1.3gMonounsaturated Fat: 2.8gTrans Fat: 0.1gCholesterol: 63.2mg (21%)Sodium: 108.6mg (5%)Potassium: 92.3mg (3%)Sugar: 1.5g (2%)Vitamin A: 178.6IU (4%)Vitamin B12: 0.1µg (2%)Vitamin C: 3.5mg (4%)Vitamin D: 0.3µg (2%)Calcium: 94.7mg (9%)Iron: 1.2mg (7%)Magnesium: 11.2mg (3%)Zinc: 0.5mg (3%)
Carine Claudepierre

About The Author

Carine Claudepierre

Hi, I'm Carine, the food blogger, author, recipe developer, published author of a cookbook and many ebooks, and founder of Sweet As Honey.

I have an Accredited Certificate in Nutrition and Wellness obtained in 2014 from Well College Global (formerly Cadence Health). I'm passionate about sharing all my easy and tasty recipes that are both delicious and healthy. My expertise in the field comes from my background in chemistry and years of following a keto low-carb diet. But I'm also well versed in vegetarian and vegan cooking since my husband is vegan.

I now eat a more balanced diet where I alternate between keto and a Mediterranean Diet

Cooking and Baking is my true passion. In fact, I only share a small portion of my recipes on Sweet As Honey. Most of them are eaten by my husband and my two kids before I have time to take any pictures!

All my recipes are at least triple tested to make sure they work and I take pride in keeping them as accurate as possible.

Browse all my recipes with my Recipe Index.

I hope that you too find the recipes you love on Sweet As Honey!

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    19 Thoughts On Keto Zucchini Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
  1. I made the zucchini cake following the recipe exactly. Both my husband and I thought the cake was dry.What can i do about that?

  2. 5 stars
    This cake is very good and easy to make. I made it a couple of weeks ago as a test run to see if it would’ve a good cake to Mae for my mom’s birthday. I will definitely be making it. Thank you for sharing your recipe

  3. I saw that you said you couldn’t make it vegan, but could I substitute flax meal for the eggs? Or are eggs absolutely necessary?

  4. I just put the Zucchini Cake batter together and it is not smooth at all. Like it definitely needs more moisture. I rechecked all the ingredients. Help!!!

    • Keto cake batter are never liquid, smooth or thin as regular cake batter. As you see on my video its dense, rough and heavy but still wet not dry as a rock. I am not sure what you mean by not smooth, if you mean overly dry then it means you added too much coconut flour. Coconut flour is 4 times more liquid absorbent than any other flours, a little too much and your batter is dense and dry. That’s why you must scoop, pack and level your flour or weight it for precision. I hope it helps, XOXO Carine

  5. Your zucchini cake looks and sounds delicious. Will be making this tomorrow. Love your recipes. Thank you for sharing.

Disclaimer

The recipes, instructions, and articles on this website should not be taken or used as medical advice. You must consult with your doctor before starting on a keto or low-carb diet. The nutritional data provided on Sweetashoney is to be used as indicative only.

The nutrition data is calculated using WP Recipe Maker. Net Carbs is calculated by removing the fiber and some sweeteners from the total Carbohydrates. As an example, a recipe with 10 grams of Carbs per 100 grams that contains 3 grams of erythritol and 5 grams of fiber will have a net carbs content of 2 grams. Some sweeteners are excluded because they are not metabolized.

You should always calculate the nutritional data yourself instead of relying on Sweetashoney's data. Sweetashoney and its recipes and articles are not intended to cure, prevent, diagnose, or treat any disease. Sweetashoney cannot be liable for adverse reactions or any other outcome resulting from the use of recipes or advice found on the Website.